After sufficiently stretching his limbs and various other body parts, Henry was more than ready to get up in the air. In fact, McLeod barely said the word and the sixteen year old had mounted his broom. Sure, he could do with a little warmup, but the prospect of a game sounded even more exciting, whether it was Quidditch-related or not. Games in class were always the best, especially when they were active games. Outside made it even better and on brooms made it doubly so!

Fast was his speed of choice, but he had to remind himself that he was in class and that he didn't need to be weaving in and out of people once he took off into the air. Sticking to the outside perimeter would probably be best. He could go fast and not be in anyone's way, or the other way around, as the class warmed up.

But did he hear someone say race as he leaned into the turn at he end of the pitch? Were they going to race today? Because he was totally down for that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

Oooooh, Derf had a point! "Maybe!" Unless... "Unless it only works because of the magic in the brooms." But even so... "BUT EVEN SO! No wands, so TECHNICALLY yes!" Hassan was going to teach Abey wandless magic probably maybe. Because he would have learnt it at that other school but decided to come HERE because Hogwarts was obviously the best school ever.

Anyway, was Derf ready? Better be!

"Race you to those hoops!" But only to those hoops because then Abey wanted to fly the rest of the laps WITH Derf, not against him actually. "THREETWOONEGO."

With that, Abey bent his own knees and kicked off as hard as he could, keeping his body pressed close to his broom for STREAMLINING and shooting off as fast as stunning spell (kind of) (school brooms) (sigh). Hehehehehe.

Well...a maybe was better than no answer at all - which had been what had greeted the Hufflepuff last time he had asked this particular question out loud - so he was TOTALLY going to stamp it to be true. Because, well, technically they were wandless and it was pretty neat to think of yourself as being capable of performing wandless magic, you know? Empowering and a confidence booster when doing essentially anything with your wand produced undesirable results.

"YOU GOT IT!" he exclaimed, giving Abey a thumbs up. "3..2..1...." And without saying go, mostly because he was too excited to kick off and ACTUALLY fly this time, Derf lauched himself into the air and immediately began speeding off towards the hoops.

And maaaaaaaaybe should not have been SO eager to take off...and maaaaaaybe should have reminded himself that one needed to be aware of their surroundings while flying and not just gain the tunnel vision of a seeker when there was a goal not the snitch in mind...because his broom ending up just barely clipping that of another's which sent his into a wild spin midair.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Well, well. It looked like everyone was having some fun flying. Justin kept his eyes on everyone and so far this warm up did wonders for their endurance. Okay, so a few were going in the opposite direction of others and nearly missing stuff, but hey, no one was dying.

It was all too tempting to just let them continue on and on seeing as only a handful stopped after three. But alas, it was game time... Especially after one got sent spinning. "Whoaa there." Quickly whipping out his wand to aim at the spinning kid to slow him down enough so he could fly over and stop him. "You all good there?"

*TWEEEEEET*

"Alright everyone, huddle up." Waiting until they flew nearby to hear the rest, "That was great warm up displayed. Now it's time for the real deal." Explaining, "In a game of Quidditch as you know there's many obstacles and of course flyers trying to knock you off your broom. Well, we're going to be rein-acting that with the bouncing Quaffle balls." How exactly? "These Quaffles will do more than bouncing though, they've also been charmed to act like bludgers in trying to hit you, only without the pain so it'll be easy to catch or swat them away."

So the main objective. "As soon as I open this trunk, you'll be greeted with many Quaffles zooming out after you. The objective is to catch, swat or avoid 10 of the Quaffles while flying around the pitch. If you wanna team up with another, that's fine. You can fly however many times around the pitch clockwise until you're satisfied." Sounded good right? The Instructor had a feeling they would be down for this.

"Get ready... 3.... 2.... 1...." And with a quick flick downward with his wand, the trunk opened and more than a dozen Quaffle-sized balls came flying out straight towards the students.

---
OOC: Time to dodge! Labelling five posts is recommended, how you choose to split them it is up to you. You'll have two whole days to complete. =)

Human Charlotte? Of course she was human, what else would she be? Char was so confused by that particular label that she didn't respond to the yell. Or notice the minion part.

She didn't have any of those either though!

Complex shmomplex.

This was awesome though! Flying just for the sake of it. Oh and racing. But mostly just flying really really fast. She looped back towards the starting area, weaving here and there, right up until the whistle sounded. Naawwww way to interrupt the fun, groundskeeper.


.....

...... except that he was interrupting fun with MORE fun! Excellent! BLUDGERS! Bludgers woul--- oh. Oh no. Just Quaffles. BUT STILL! LETS DO THIS! Catch, swat, avoid, clockwise!

She had this!

Still on her broom, the blonde sped off eagerly. The trunk was open an there were Quaffles a-coming! The first one caught up to her and Charlotte dived to avoid it, inadvertently sending it careening off in a new direction when it made contact with her shoe.

Did that count as one?

NOOOOOOOOO!

Derf was honestly beginning to feel a bit sick from all the spinning. Should he close his eyes in these circumstances? He knew that ballerina-types picked ONE spot to focus on while spinning and stuff to keep themselves from getting sick ... but the problem was that he couldn't focus on any ONE thing to make his focus point....and closing his eyes sort of made everything WORSE.

Hands gripping his broom, the first year moved to tug on the handle in the opposite direction he was spinning to hopefully counteract the rotation when he began to slow down all of a sudden. MORE WANDLESS MAGIC?! Derf was about to beam over at Abey and tell him that the whole INTENT aspect of magic was SO VERY REAL when the Groundskeeper appear and all became clear.

Oh. Oh. Oh.

Crestfallen.

Now his head was spinning for entirely different reasons. Abey and him had already been given weird glare-like looks from older students and then the Groundskeeper himself some comments that lit the fire of determination in the first year's belly...and now...he had needed to be saved. Only he hadn' ASKED to be saved and TOTALLY would have had it on his own. Eventually. Probably.

BUT NOW HE WOULD NEVER KNOW BECAUSE THE GROUNDSKEEPER HAD INTERVENED AND MADE HIM LOOK LIKE HE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING AND HE COULD TOTALLY DO THIS ON HIS OWN AND HOLD HIS OWN AGAINST OLDER STUDENTS AND...

"....fine," he mumbled mid-mind-spiral as he looked sadly down at his hands gripping the handle of his broom. He was trying not to look unappreciative as he made his way over to huddle up with the rest of class and listen to the next instructions, but it was HARD when his heart was disheartened so.

Although the mention of quaffles certainly brightened his spirits and if he were not so accustomed to his own mood swings he may have received a good bout of whiplash from himself as his eyes brightened and he beamed at the trunk. Quaffles were his thing! Well, they would be more his thing if magizoology ended up not working out for him. Professional quidditch chaser back up dreams!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Still on her broom, the blonde sped off eagerly. The trunk was open an there were Quaffles a-coming! The first one caught up to her and Charlotte dived to avoid it, inadvertently sending it careening off in a new direction when it made contact with her shoe.

Did that count as one?

Leaning forward on his broom as the trunk was open, Derf checked himself for balance as he went by removing one hand and making an throwing movement with one hand and then the other. He veered a little when his left hand gripped the handle - non-dominant one and all - and by crazy happenstance happened to steer him right in the path of Charlotte's kicked quaffle.

OH OH OH HE HAD THIS HE HAD THIS!

Momentum decreased just enough thanks to the Gryffindor's foot, Derf was able to catch the quaffle without too much difficulty. Well...once it hit his chest anyway and then his arm was easily wrapped around it to "catch."

"Here you go, Mr. McLeod!" he chirped as he tossed that quaffle over to the man.

Now he should return the favor to Charlotte, right? RIGHT!

Continuing on his way, Derf wove in and out of a few oncoming quaffles and under and over some of his classmates until he found the quaffle that presented him with the most opportune moment to return the favor. "Miss Charlotte!" he squeaked. "For yoooooou!" And then he gave a quaffle a hardy SLAP with his hand like he had seen dad do when playing beach volleyball.

Was he missing the point of things? Sort of. But this was FUN. Besides, you didn't DODGE quaffles in quidditch. You caught them!

Okay, this was- well, it was a nice idea, but when it came to putting it into practice, Sinead wasn't so keen. Yes, she knew everyone was obsessed with Quidditch, but this was technically a flying lesson and not a Quidditch one, so why did they have to start having things thrown at them? Flying was one thing, but catching had never been her strong suit.

Still, if he said "avoid" was allowed as well as catch, she might be alright at this. Though really, she still wasn't sure it was the best way to spend her time. Maybe she shouldn't be coming to Flying lessons after this.

She set off on another lap of the pitch as instructed, keeping a wary eye out for any would-be assaulting quaffles that might fly her way. It didn't take long for one to appear- fresh from somebody else deflecting it, the ball lazily flew towards her, giving her plenty of time to duck into a little dive and let it fly over her head. Did that count? If so; one down, 9 to go.

Leon realized that he better get a move on, he could see the Professor moving to talk to them on and he was barely into lap two! Apparently his lazy flying was a bit TOO lazy!

The 7th head started to put on speed as he hunched down low on his broom, moving around the pitch going faster and faster as he tried to make up his three laps!

Finally he rounded the pitch and was on his third lap, people and things were whizzing by as he felt the icy wind sting his face.. this was such a rush! He loved flying and he let out a soft whoop as he slowed down as he heard the Professors whistle!

He headed towards him.. eager to hear what they were going to do.

QUAFFLES!

This was why McLeod was her favourite. Even if the Slytherins didn't get reception parties like the Gryffindors did. She was perfectly willing to let that go because he had Quaffles in that trunk! Better yet, Quaffles enchanted to act like Bludgers. This was the best of two words and the Slytherin's blue eyes sparkled excitedly behind her goggles. They had to catch, swat or avoid the Quaffles and she was particularly excited for the catching part. It would be pretty good practise, after all. YAY for flying, improving Quidditch skills AND earn some points.

This was the best lesson EVER, already.

This time, as soon as Mr. HoH signalled them to start, Daisy was off like a rocket, flying clockwise around the pitch. Heeeeereee came the Quaffles! As she flew, she could see a red ball coming towards her and one hand left the handle of the broomstick as she turned around. She misjudged the speed of the Quaffle just a bit and almost got smacked in the chest by it but at the last minute she was able to wrap her arm around it. WOOOO! One down, nine to go!

Actually .. make that two??

There was another ball coming towards her now and Daisy quickly released the one that was in her grip. Float away, pretty baby. Eyes squinting and focused on the incoming Quaffle, Daisy slowly flew in its direction, arm swinging. She didn't have a bat, so her arm would be the bat! BOOOOOM!! Off went the Quaffle, flying onto some unsuspecting victim.

Leon was excited as he heard What was going to be happening! They had to catch, swat or avoid quaffles! Yassss! This was right up his alley and he grinned as the Professor opened up the trunk and

ZOOOOOOMMMMMMMM

Quaffles went flying and Leon grinned as he took off around the pitch, clockwise as the Professor had instructed..

For the moment there was nothing coming his way so he was able to fly along nicely, but as he rounded back towards where the Professor had released the balls, he saw a few enchanted quaffles heading his way and he picked up speed and held his arm out like a beaters bat and

WHAMMMM!

The quaffle hit his arm and went bouncing away from him! Take that bludger like quaffle...

All right!

One down, nine to go!

Quaffles acting like bludgers? That was new, and Henry took a moment to wrap his head around that one. It did sound fun, but being a chaser he was used to handling quaffles a different way. He wondered if he still could though since McLeod did say they could catch them.

At the countdown, he took off again, his goggled eyes peeled for any incoming quaffles. And incoming they were! So many quaffles all at once, this was going to be an awesome challenge.

None were coming just his way and he was flying fast enough to avoid them, he supposed. That was kind of boring. Were they all targeting everyone else?Maybe he should be more on the offensive rather than the defensive, and he looked around for something to catch just when a quaffle was batted towards him by the arm of one Daisy Carden.

He reached out to catch that quaffle as he flew past her, then glanced over his shoulder at her. "Daisy, catch!" He threw it hard behind him, then swerved out of the way of an incoming bludger!quaffle. That was two, right? But he wasn't going to keep track. He didn't think he'd be done at just ten.

Fresh from her first victory, Sinead felt relatively confident as she continued around the pitch, crouching lower on her broom to pick up a little speed. Flying was... well, despite herself, it was just kinda fun.

Only a few seconds after the first, a second Quaffle winged its way towards her, looking rather menacing despite all Mr McLeod's promises that they wouldn't hurt. This time, she flattened herself against the broom handle and put on a burst of acceleration which startled her, whisking herself out of the way just as the Quaffle whizzed past behind her. That was all well and good- but next thing she knew, yet another one was hurtling towards her face, and she didn't have time to do anything much except throw her hands up to protect her face, batting the ball away with her palms. Without direction, her broom gave a little lurch in the air and she was forced to grab back onto the handle with some haste. Even as she regained control (mostly) over her flying, she couldn't help thinking that one had been a little less successful.

In which case, if just flying around wasn't working out for her, maybe it was time for a change of tactics...

It felt as if as soon as that Quaffle had left her proximity, she heard her name and there was that ball returning back to her. Oh, so Henry wanted to play. Alright, that was perfect for her. Actually it was a pretty good idea; they might aswell train their coordination while they were here. Leaning against the handle of her broomstick once more, Daisy shot off towards the thrown ball and caught with her left arm.

... the goal posts were right there. Trying to score wasn't really part of the game, was it? Alrighty then.

The Slytherin zoomed after her teammate, the struggling ball trying to escape her grip. The problem with not bringing your top of line, new broomstick to school --thanks, Dad -- was that it was decidely harder to catch Henry, so Daisy had to get creative. Like cutting the corner near the goal hoops and flying in a straight line. "Yo, Henry." She threw the ball back at him in a diagonal line and rejoined the flock of students. Just as she did that, another ball appeared in her line of vision and Daisy quickly swerved right to avoid it.

To be honest, Abey had already kind of lost track of Derf. The problem with flying was that - like with everything else - he sort of got a little bit very carried away. Sooooo, even though he had every INTENTION of sticking with his villainous friend, he might have sort of maybe accidentally actually began lapping the pitch without him. He was halfway around the pitch again before he saw Derf wayyyyyy behind - like on the other side of the pitch where they had started kind of behind - and SPINNINNNNGGGGGG.

Distracted from his flying, Abey watched, open-mouthed and very much in danger of catching nearby flying bugs, as Derf's spinning was halted by the Slytherin Man. Professor. Person. Huh. Had that not been a special trick then? Or WAS it a trick and was Whats-His-Name not very happy about it? Didn't seem that way, Abey noted as he finished up his lap and rejoined his friend again, slowing to a halt. Slytherin Man didn't seem angry or anything. Huh.

.... Okay, so. Stopping wasn't really a very good idea. Even though the windchill lessened, the very fact that Abey wasn't focusing on flying was making him VERY aware of how quickly the cold had got to him actually. Without his scarf and jacket the cold was creeping down under his collar, and and he was now suddenly realise how much of a BAD idea it was to exercise enough so much he started sweating because NOW the cold was clinging to him even MORE actually.

Unable to stop himself, Abey gave a great shiver and hunched up his shoulders to make himself as small as possible because that was how staying warm worked maybe actually probably. Abey made sure to also take both hands off of the broom handle too, just to make sure they weren't frozen to it. AT LEAST he could still feel his fingers. YAY DOUBLE GLOVES.

He was about to set off to finish up his other laps, now that he was sure Derf was all good, but they were all moving onto the activity. While the professor explained, Abey hovered where he was, taking his hands from his broom again to HUG HIMSELF, TO KEEP THE WARM IN HIS BODY, while he willed the explanation to finish sooner. OKAY. OKAY. OKAY. CATCH, SWAT, OR AVOID QUAFFLES. EASY. KBYE.

Honestly, Abey was already flying away before the countdown had finished, just so he could focus on SOMETHING. But now all he could think about was the stupid cold and how much he wished he hadn't stopped flying.

Oh, but wait. Clockwise around the pitch. Which way was clockwise? Abey slowed just a little, but didn't completely stop, and tried to take a second to work it out. Uhhhh... No, he definitely knew this... it was... that w-...?

BONK!

The only warning Abey had actually had had been a sudden whistling sound, but there had been no time to think (BECAUSE HE WAS BUSY WITH THE CLOCKWISE THING) before it NAILED HIM.

Right in the head. WOW.

"RUDE!" Abey yelled at the quaffle as it flew away from him. He rubbed at his head, and quickly took note of the direction that the older students were flying in. Without further delay, he followed. And NOW he was on task, focused, READY TO PROVE HIMSELF. Or something actually.

The bludger quaffles were everywhere! Charlotte was ready to smack some away but the opportunity hadn't quite presented itself yet, save for the first one which she accidentally had kicked. But there was one now! Charlotte headed straight for it and PUNCHED it aside, gleeful as it careened off in a completely different direction. Well what? It was satisfying and more so than just batting it away.

Happily, she pulled into a barrel roll, still more focused on having fun and flying fast and high than on any semblance of actual Quidditch.

And, right as she was upside down, Derf sent a Quaffle at her. NBD though. Even if she was gripping the broom with both hands, it wasn't like she couldn't just use her legs to grip. Char grabbed for the Quaffle, grabbing it neatly with both hands as she came back around right way up. She tossed it away again and sped off for another.

Hmmmmmmm which name did she prefer..."Quicksilver will do!" Juno called out to Leon with a chuckle, lapping him again. They were then called back to the professor for further instructions

Juno listened intently. They were going to have live quaffles coming at them and they were supposed to dodge, catch, or hit the quaffle. Juno was well practiced...She could do this. She quickly zoomed off on her broom circling and waiting for a quaffle to come her way.

Soon enough there was one nearing her. She head it whistling through the breeze. She could probably catch this one. As the ball came closer, and was just about to pass her, she stuck out her arm, grasping the quaffle, and rolling her arm to her chest. She had caught it! She quickly let it go and awaited the next one.

Not too long after there was another one coming straight for her head. Her eyes were as round as saucers. She did a quick loop where she was hanging upside down and dodged the ball. Hopefully that one wouldn't hit anyone else. When she was upright on her broom she awaited the next quaffle.

It took a bit for this next one, but she saw it coming. She was pretty sure she could deflect this one. As it made it's approach, she hit it pretty hard. She watched, as it headed straight for, of course, Leon. She gasped and called out, "LEON LOOK OUT!" She braced herself for impact.


3/10 Quaffles

Now that Abey was sort of getting a little bit into his stride, it was getting easier to keep track of what was going on around him, AND he no longer had to waste his brain energy focusing on which way he was supposed to be going. Lapping the pitch was so so so so so easy, and something he could do practically automatically by now actually.

For a moment, Abey toyed with trying to count how many quaffles were in play, so he could keep track of WHERE they all were. This proved to be quite difficult actually though on account of he was moving lots and THEY were moving lots and EVERYONE WAS MOVING LOTS so yeah... maybe not. Also, the cold. The cold was distracting. Abey tried to get used to it but it kept blowing down the back of his shirt and sending random shivers through him and-

There was that whistling sound again, different to the regular old sound of the wind whistling in his ears actually. Abey was ALERT; he looked towards the sound and saw a quaffle flying STRAIGHT AT HIM. AHHHHHHHH.

Instinctively he reached out for it with one hand, all his fingers super spread out. Abey, being a small and skinny first year, was not gifted with giant hands, nor a very strong grip. But he WAS gifted with the knowledge that quaffles all had helpful gripping charms on them as standard actually, which meant that he could reach out with one hand - like so - and catch the quaffle as it came at him, without too much difficulty.

That was one!

Abey kept hold of it for now as he flew, though, because it felt GOOD to be flying AND holding a piece of Quidditch equipment; the sport didn't seem to be a very big thing here actually. He tucked it under his arm and kept on track around the pitch, practicing flying one-handed and keeping an eye out for that telltale (and beauuuuutiful) quaffle red. The next time one flew for him, Abey used the quaffle he was already holding to QUAFFLE-PUNCH IT AWAY FROM HIM. YEAHHHHH!

After that, he released it again. Or, rather, he threw it back into the fray of its friends all zooming about, and focused on flying.

... Sooooo... how fast could this broom go?

Leon grinned at Juno as she spoke about what nickname to call her.. Quicksilver he could totally do that.. he barely had time to say anything before she zoomed off again and he just grinned and looked at her before zig zagging slightly as he moved clockwise around the pitch.

One zig had him ducking in order to miss an incoming quaffle! Phew! That had been close, he had barely been paying attention and was just doing evasive maneuvers.

Leon shook his head a little and tried to focus more when he heard someone shout? Juno?

The seventh year looked up just in time to see a quaffle come barreling at him! "MERLIN!" The seventh year went into an instant drop and he felt the quafflle's air dispersion as it flew right past his head..

That was close!

"Thanks Juno! " He said with a grin.

It was all of a sudden that Char saw two quaffles heading right at her. Side by side. She either needed both hands or to DUCK. She hugged the broom, body flush with the wood as the quaffles sailed over her shoulders, split apart, and then looped back around, one on a tighter trajectory than the other. Good thing, because it meant that she could take them on one at a time!

The first one came at her tightly, and Char used her forearm to slap it away like she was blocking an attack. More comfortable than trying to slap it with her hand, she felt!

It went off towards a group.

"Watch out!" she shouted at them but couldn't spare much to help because here came quaffle number two. She let it slap into her grip, catching it and then biffing it away.

..... this would be even COOLER with bludgers!

Look, now he'd thought about it, Abey just HAD to try it out, didn't he? This broom was totally new to him, and it didn't look like much - especially next to some of the fancy brooms some people here were flying on - but it was of the bestest quality he could from the school brooms actually, so surely it would be pretty fast, right?

TIME TO SEEEEEEEEE.

Bracing himself for the more intense cold, Abey pressed himself as flat against his broom as he could, and urged it onwards. AhhhhHHHHHHH. FASTERFASTERFASTERFASTER. He kept going and going - making sure to give himself enough time to turn on the bends JUST IN CASE he lost control - and tried to pick up as much speed as possible. It probably helped that he was so small and light when it came to being speedy actually, but if it had been a windy day, there may have been problems. Maybe. Probably. Actually.

Soon, Abey was going SO SO SO FAST that the broom handle started to vibrate almost in protest, or anger, which meant... well, which meant he was probably pushing it a little too hard. BUT, before he could start to slow down, there was a sudden RED FLASH HEADED HIS WAY. AHHHHHH.

With no time to really think, Abey GRIPPED THE BROOM AS HARD AS HE COULD and attempted a Sloth Grip Roll to dodge the quaffle, which worked actually, though he still felt it brush his sleeve as they passed each other.

NOW. Abey HAD TRIED this trick before, when flying with Théo, but never quite so fast. It was... perhaps actually not that surprising at all, the way that the faster he went the less control he had. But... well... essentially his Sloth Grip Roll turned into a Sloth Grip Triple Roll Oh No Make It Stop Quickly, because it was two more times of rolling around the broom before Abey could finally stop himself, and just in time to zoom around the goal posts at the other end of the pitch.

At that point, he actually did slow down actually. His broom handle finally stopped juddering and actually Abey was relieved, because it had getting harder and harder to hold on.

He cruised around the pitch at a slightly more controllable speed, and was more than able to punch away the next quaffle that tried to stop him in his tracks.

But slow was boring, and Abey wanted ACTION. He continued around the pitch, alternating between flying high and low as the session continued, and the NEXT time he saw a quaffle, he sped ahead to meet it, taking both hands off of his broom to catch it in a sort of cradle in his torso.

Aaaaaaand then... immediately threw it away again - backwards, over his head, a two-handed throw - because no hands PLUS the slight force of the quaffle EQUALLED an Abey almost topping off of his broom, especially since he hadn't exactly mastered no-handed flying JUST yet. BUT HE WAS FINE. He was fine. Both hands on broom, and back to flying UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN as he continued to lap the pitch.

OH, thank goodness! He dodged the quaffle! She really hadn't meant to send it off in his direction. It was just a coincidence that it happened to fly off that way when she deflected it...but at least she got Leon's attention. "You're welcome!" She called back with a blush and grin. At least he didn't realize that she had sent it off his way.

Juno needed seven more quaffles to finish the activity! She watched intently for another quaffle to come her way. Finally, one was directly in her path. This one looked like she could catch it, just as the first one had. As the ball came closer, and was just about to pass her, she stuck out her arm, grasping the quaffle, and rolling her arm to her chest. Another good catch...seriously, she should be playing Quidditch!

As she released the quaffle, out of the corner of her eye she saw another one zooming towards her, and she quickly maneuvered her broom out of the way. It barely brushed her leg, but in all missed her.

That was close!

5/10

Soooooo, as good as it was to get in the air and move about and deal with bludger-like quaffles, Abey was starting to get juuuust a little bored with it. The problem was, once you got into the rhythm and worked out exactly how to tell when a quaffle was headed your way, it got a little less challenging. That was why QUIDDITCH was so fun, because there was LOTS GOING ON and LOTS TO DEAL WITH AT ONCE. Exciting.

The next time a quaffle flew at Abey, and he caught the sight of it out of the corner of his eye, it was even easier to duck out of its way, though he found himself playing a little game of chicken as well. That meant waiting as looooooong as he dared before moved out of its way. It made things just that LITTLE bit more fun and exciting, and he still managed to get out of its way actually.

Arooouuuuund and arouuunnddddd and uuuuup and doooooown. The wavy sort of flying Abey was doing got more and more conspicuous the longer he flew; soon he was flying wayyyyyy up into the sky - though no higher than the tops of the goalposts, as Professor Who's-That-Man had said earlier - and then going into a dive and pulling back up as late as he dared, over and over and over. It was on his way back up into the air that another quaffle came his way, and Abey caught it one-handed, exactly the same as the first one, before throwing it away again.

Oh, sweet. Daisy was up for it and Henry gave her a grin over his shoulder as he watched her catch it. And he narrowly avoided getting hit in the head by another quaffle as he turned his eyes forward again to fly further down the pitch. He really needed to pay better attention.

He flew forward and increased his speed, but he tried to keep note of where Daisy was as he glanced back again. He almost lost sight of her. Was she flying slower than usual? But then he heard his name and he turned with an arm out, catching the tossed quaffle with one hand and tucking it under his arm as he swerved around another student.

Spotting the Slytherin girl flying within a group up ahead, he leaned forward to catch up. "Back to you!" He threw the quaffle back to Daisy as he sidled up next to her before zooming off again, knocking a bludger!quaffle out of the way as it threatened to hit him in the face.

Char figured it was time to decide between whether she liked dodging, catching, or batting away the quaffles best, for no other reason than why not? Her hair had come loose from it's braid by this point and Charlotte's cheeks were flushed red with the brisk air. Her fingertips were getting a little cold now too, along with the cold in her eyes - should have gone with the protective gear! But it didn't matter because she was having fun. The exhilaration was real.

SO. Onwards with the decision! She decided to look out for a ball to catch. Maybe a two handed grab, she could do that! Charlotte flew toward a Quaffle that was currently on its lonesome, away from anyone else. That one was herrrrrrrs!

She sped toward it and the Quaffle sped towards her....

..... Char put both hands up, gripping with her legs, but it made her flying a little erratic and she wobbled and slowed up a bit. Okay. two handed was hard to prepare for! The ball was going faster than she was when she met it, and while she caught it, the momentum drive her hands back to her chest and air knocked off of her with a whoosh of breath, visible in on the air. But she had caught it! Come to basically a complete stop to do so, but still!

Actually, maybe Abey was now getting a little over-confident, a bit too big for his broom. His antics, now that he was more comfortable with the activity AND the fact that he could keep up with the older students, were probably not that far off from showing off. Of course, all HE was bothered about was having fun, and getting a challenge, and the best way for that to happen was to make things all the more difficult. And the BEST part? Abey had all but forgotten about the cold.

He had started attempting to race the quaffles, which actually WAS pretty fun actually. With one, he started at one end of the pitched and raced it ALLLLLLL the way back up to the other end, before putting on a burst of speed right at the last second, overtaking the bright red ball, looping back and giving it a hearty KICK, which sent it soaring off in the direction it had just come from. Abey watched it for a moment, long enough to see that it had adjusted its course and headed for someone else instead. With that, he slalomed between the goalposts and continued his laps.

What was that? Seven? No... eight? Eight sounded right, if Abey was remembering right, though... well, his memory wasn't exactly his best asset. BUT YES. EIGHT. Just two more then. Easy peasy.

Maybe not that easy, because Abey was already starting to get distracted with daydreaming about other things. Despite the fact that he LOVED flying and was doing just that right now, he started thinking back to times he and Théo had mucked about on their brooms, and fantasising about Derf joining them and having a wicked time actually!

Distracted as he was by imagining that situation and how much FUN they would have, Abey forgot to pay attention to what he was actually doing actually. While he was flying pretty much on autopilot, he couldn't be ALERT on autopilot at all, so it was only by pure luck that he happened to adjust his course on his broom just as a quaffle tried to whack him in the face. TRIED! Because Abey just HAPPENED to move out of the way in time and avoided it, though he felt it whistling past his hair it was so close.

..... THAT TOTALLY COUNTED THOUGH. He was counting it totally actually.

Now for the last one. And actually Abey wanted it to be a REALLY SPECIAL AND IMPRESSIVE one actually, but he was very quickly learning that (shock!) (horror!) he didn't always get what he wanted.

Except that actually by the way he had learnt that the hard way, the day he had been sorted into Gryffindor.

Except that actually he had also known for quite a long time before that actually that he didn't always get what he wanted but ACTUALLY SHUT UP BECAUSE HE WAS TRYING TO BE DRAMATIC HERE.

Anyways, no such special or impressive displays occurred. Instead what actually happened was that, as Abey looped around the goalposts yet again, he was taken by surprise by - of course obviously actually - another quaffle. Giving a startled YELP, he reacted on instinct to protect his FACE, and released his broom to give the quaffle a SWIFT AND MIGHTY RIGHT HOOK. It sailed away, bouncing off of the stands and back into the fray, but leaving him alone.

Oooooh, all done? That was ten, wasn't it?

Abey CELEBRATED by doing a super sneaky (except not) set of loop-the-loops to express his enthusiasm.

And then hoped that nobody had seen, just in case they weren't supposed to do that. Ahem.

Catching was okay. Except when it made you stop cos of momentum reasons. Though it did give her a chance to look around and pay attention to everyone else for a moment, especially the people who were basically Quidditch stars already. Some of them were just amazing to watch, they were soooo graceful as well as skilled.

Char being where she was, hovering in one spot, suddenly became an excellent target for the charmed Quaffles. Two came at her and Char kicked into action, trying to outspeed them. They zoomed after her as she picked speed up. It was all about the acceleration, since she'd gone from zero to whatever these school brooms were capable of. One of them was right on her tail twigs! Charlotte swerved to avoid it, flying into the trajectory of someone else for just a moment before swerving out of their way too. Eeep! The other one was now coming at her from side on instead of from behind, and Charlotte reached out to smack it, using the heel of her hand to get it out of her way.

Well it was official in her head at least, that she preferred dodging to the other stuff. It was just more FUUUN.

And again, it would be FUNNER if it was bludgers, for sure! Charlotte saw a blur out of the corner of her eye and look at that, another chance to dodge! She swung around her school broom like a monkey, a barrel roll of sorts, except the broom didn't move, Char did, and she popped back around just as the Quaffle zipped through where she'd been a moment before.

Whew!

.... okay now what though?